Scoop.it Content Curation Report Scoop.it’s analytics are excellent if manual (unless I missed the export to Excel option which is very possible). After a little over a year of Scooping content I wanted to answer three questions: What type of content generated the most views? What keyword triggers formed the most successful headlines? What is the value of cherished Internet marketing notions? * The move to a more visual web as expressed in a sea of infographics. * Have we reached a point of diminishing returns on infographics? * Is storytelling as hot as it seems? * What about Social, Local and Mobile are they as hot as they seem? How I Created The Report I only worked with data from Curation Revolution . I moved views by Scoop information from Scoop.it’s analytics into a spreadsheet for the top 50 Scoops. What is a Scoop? A Scoop is curating content from any source into one of the 12 digital revolutions I’ve created. Scoop.it provides a good spider tool. You list keywords and Scoop.it’s spider tool searches the social web bringing back thousands of pieces of related content. When I started I used Scoop.it’s spider to find content that felt special enough to warrant a “Scoop”. Now I use the spider about 10% of the time preferring to tap trusted sources for my Internet marketing scoops. The ultimate top of the funnel test for the Scoop.it Cool Content Curation Report is views. What content generates the most return for the time it took to curate? The Scoop.it Cool Content Curation Report is a step closer to the heaven of having top of funnel traffic generation tied to bottom of funnel conversion data. Topline Results Total Scoops: 1,351 generating Total Views: 15,785 with an average of 43 views per scoop. Top 50 Scoops Total Views: 5,002 with an average of 100 views per scoop or 132% above overall average. Top 50 Scoops accounted for 32% of total views. Top 10 Scoops accounted for 12% of total views. Questions In order to answer my content curation questions I tagged each of the top 50 posts with Content Type and 3 Keywords extracted from the headline: Question #1: What Type Of Content Generated The Most Views? Inevitably no matter how you tag there are stragglers, so I smoothed the data a tad moving stranglers into one of ten categories: Social Media Marketing (SMM), Tools [...]
I’d like to share 7 simple content curation tips for personal branding success, based on a recently-introduced feature on one of my favorite blogs. As I wrote Author’s Journey blog post a few weeks, content curation can be a powerful tool for personal brand building and corporate branding. Content curation can save you time while helping you and your business build your expert status and maintain your consistent online visibility. “However, too much content curation can backfire , leading to reader boredom and tune-out. This can easily happen today, when the same Top 40 blog resources are often simply passed along, over and over again, without differentiating comment or added value.” Which is why I was so enthusiastic about a new feature recently introduced on Mindjet’s Conspire blog . The feature is their Super Happy Fun Friday Link Time , a weekly feature that began a few months ago. Here’s a link to last week’s addition to their series. 7 tips for content curation done right I’ve been studying this series since it began; here are some of the lessons and tips that set it apart from the everyday. Purposeful . The essence of successful project lies in its description and purpose statement. In this case, the series is described as, “ a weekly collection of cool discoveries from around the Web .” Most of the time, it’s mission is described as, “ Most times the goal is to get you thinking differently about communication, collaboration, culture, and life in general. “ Relevance . People don’t read high-tech blogs for comic relief, however. For a blog, or a business, to survive, it has to value to customers and readers in terms of practical assistance, entertainment, or inspiration. This calls for a level of curation that goes beyond checking out the most popular blogs on the Internet. It requires an intimate understanding of your intended reader’s interests and values combined with a bloodhound’s tenacity following a clue. Surprise . Given the wealth of daily compiled content curation publications on the Internet, serendipity –the ability to search out and discover previous unknown resources –becomes more and more essential. If your compilations merely echo the information that’s available elsewhere, the value of your brand quickly declines. The game is over when your recommendations fail to be pleasant discoveries . (I find these are almost always fresh discoveries on topics I do not normally follow–but [...]
My name is Ally Greer. I’m a marketer with expertise in content marketing and curation. You’ve probably never heard of me. With over 500 million users on Twitter, 175 million on LinkedIn, and over a billion on Facebook, you probably haven’t heard of most people on the Internet. The bad news is that this also means most of those people probably haven’t heard of you either. That said, I’m certainly not here to tell you how flooded the Internet is and discourage you from jumping into the information pool. In fact, I’m telling you to do the exact opposite. Although it isn’t likely that all 500 million people on Twitter will be following you by the time you’re finished reading this (or ever), there are a few ways to look what we call “information overload” right in the face and use it to your advantage. In a digital world characterized by an overwhelming amount of noise, everyone is struggling to find relevant content from people and brands with an expertise on a specific subject. Content curators are the ones who step up to the plate. According to Michael Brenner, cofounder of Business 2 Community, content curation is the process of identifying relevant content for your audience from multiple sources, modifying or editing that content to reflect the needs of your audience and delivering the content to the appropriate channels of distribution. The truth is, you’re probably already curating content. Do you share links on Twitter? Do you Retweet content that you find interesting? Do you write blogposts referencing content that’s been created by others? If so, you’re a curator. You know what you’re talking about, you know where the best content on your topic of expertise is, and you put it together for the world to see. But, the question still looms: if no one knows who you are, how will they find it? Enter a platform like Scoop.it . Scoop.it is a topic-centric curation publishing platform that allows you to create a digital magazine of the content that you’re sharing. This type of platform feeds you with content that’s relevant to your brand and your area of expertise, lets you hand select which content you’d like to share, provides you with the opportunity to add insight and context, and shares the content to all of your social networks. The cherry on the cake, though, is that all of your [...]
The question over the ethics involved with content curation is not a new debate. It’s been going on for years, and I expect it to go on for years to come. Regardless of that continuing debate, one thing is certain; it’s a strategy that content marketers will continue to use and explore. But can they do it with a clear conscience? My answer is, yes, if you follow some straightforward, ethical guidelines that start with understanding what content curation is and what it is not. “I Once Heard a Story About…” So, what is content curation? Well, have you ever heard someone tell a story that wasn’t their own? We do it all the time. The stories that other people share about their own experiences can be powerful illustrations to back our own viewpoint or experience. There is nothing wrong with that. Everyone does it. Many instances in history and media support the practice. And, as long as credit is given where credit is due, it’s a legitimate tool . Content curation does a similar thing. A content curator borrows a story or idea from someone else and presents it in a way that highlights a point that the curator believes is important. Done in this way, proper content curation is ethical. In fact, when done well, it is appreciated by readers and content producers alike. Curation is not piracy . Unlike content curation, pirating is illegal and can get you into some serious legal trouble. And, unfortunately for those who find themselves mixed up in it, the legal problems are not the only major dilemma they bring on themselves. Their reputation is also likely to suffer, and in the land of internet marketing, reputation is everything. Pirating VS Curating Content So, what’s the difference between curating content and pirating? How can you be sure that what you do remains under the label of curation and doesn’t cross over to pirating? Well, though the two may seem very similar, where ethics are concerned, they are actually vastly different. Pirating is stealing. It describes taking content word for word or concept for concept, whole or in part, and publishing it. There’s no other way to put this—it is simply wrong. Content curation, on the other hand, is not stealing. It is ethical because it involves only using carefully selected parts of the content, adding relevant commentary or insight, or highlighting [...]
Here are the key best practices I’ve observed based on real successful case studies that we regularly report about on the Scoop.it blog (such as http://blog.scoop.it/en/2 012/02/… about IS Decisions, an IT Software Publisher or http://blog.scoop.it/en/2 012/05/… on EcoVadis, a Start-Up doing a Supply Chain Audit platform). Note: it might look like a long list but this is precisely why there are dedicated curation platforms to make all of that easy and integrated. At the end of the day, chances are you’re already doing the time consuming part (reading content) and by using bespoke content curation services, you’ll be getting results with minimum time to invest. 1. Define your topic and your audience Who are you going to be curating for? What are they interesting about? How does it connect with your brand or your products? It’s useless to be curating news about Apple’s latest products just because this can get your traffic if that traffic is meaningless to you, ie doesn’t memorize your brand or convert into leads. 2. Start from what you already do to and define your format Nobody has lots of time on their hands to engage in new activities. The secret is making it a marginal cost. I’ve found most professionals do at least one of these 4 things: – Chances are you already read content related to your business, your market and your topic: develop a habit of curating the good stuff you’re already reading. – If you’re already tweeting links, you’re already doing a part of the work so that’s a good start too. – If you’re emailing links to interesting articles to your colleagues or business partners, you can start there and make them public by curating them. – Attend professional events where you’ll hear talks or panels that people will tweet about: this is great content to curate too. Any of the above is a good starting point and will also help you define the format: what will be your curation format? A media curated from existing stories ( Scoop.it , Paper.li )? Stories curated from tweets, videos or other social objects (Storify)? Or will it be pictures-only (Pinterest)? Videos (Chill)? 3. Organize your sources As per 2, you probably already have content sources (if only Quora since you’re reading this here). Use tools to organize them (plug: Scoop.it helps on that and will also help you identify new ones, [...]
What a great example of leveraging technology to enhance the educational process by educators that will go the extra mile to truly provide a quality educational experience for their students. Leveraging Learnist, we see a teacher that earns the title Educator!
Photo Credit: http://edudemic.com
21st Century School | Feature Teaching With Content Curation With two mobile laptop carts that are used primarily for technology classes and a student body that has limited access to computers outside of school, Stockton Collegiate International School isn’t exactly a hotbed of ed tech. That stumbling block doesn’t stop the K-12 charter school in Stockton, CA, from doing what it can to cultivate its 21st Century learners and prepare them for college and the workforce. In Hauna Zaich’s 8th- and 10th-grade English classes, for example, students—a good portion of whom are English learners—are using a process known as “content curation” to cull through the many resources on the web, select the most relevant ones, and then organize those resources in a logical format for sharing and later use. Defined as the act of discovering, gathering, and presenting digital content that relates a specific subject, content curation is less about creating new resources and more about amassing information and then maintaining it in a logical fashion. In K-12 education, content curation tools can be used to collect and share reading materials with students, stoke conversation about current events, develop group activities, and critique web-based material. Using the curation platform Learnist , Zaich pulls informative resources from the web (including videos, images, articles, and quizzes), curates them, and then makes the information available to her students both in and out of school. When teaching 10th-grade grammar lessons, for example, Zaich replaces a textbook with the many different SAT, GMAT, and GRE test prep materials that are available for free online. She collects video tutorials, handouts, lessons, and other materials on a “board” that students access using their own computers or mobile devices. One of Zaich’s curated boards introduces 10th graders to verb tenses, subject/verb agreement , and active versus passive voice to prep them for a writer’s workshop. Positioned prominently at the top of the board is an infographic that shows students how to take notes using the Cornell note-taking system. The board also includes a summary of active and passive voices added from GMAT and a lesson on the topic from Purdue Online Writing Lab. Another board is populated with resources like a YouTube video lesson on verbs and verb tenses from School House Rock and a lesson on verb problem-solving from SAT/ACT. Flipping the Classroom When selecting content to curate, Zaich said she looks for “areas where my View Full Article… thejournal.com
Why do I constantly update my Google Reader RSS feeds? Adding categories, fine tuning reading lists, then upsetting them all over again when I stumble upon several great sites. That’s because I rely on information discovery to push my own thinking . The more I broaden and diversify my reading, chasing tangents, listening to, and verifying opposing views, the sharper my ability to see and make sense of trends. Saying we have filter failure is not capturing the depth of the challenges we face. Defining the problem Real time streams and social graphs are training people to react . I see the transformation also in blog comments. It is tempting to use the seagull move — who has the time, right? Reacting to information is the exact opposite of critical thinking . It will not help you or your business understand why a trend may be emerging, what it means to you, and how to reorganize your thinking about it. As more people and organizations become publishers, the merits of curating information as content strategy go up. Curation, as in making sense, also has a prominent role in how organizations develop and transmit news . However, not all curation activities are created equal. Five activities that pay dividends on content curation Research There’s no point producing content before you have a firm handle on what the target audience wants. Steve Jobs is a great example of the kind of preparation that goes into understanding your audience needs and building community . For all the talk of listening and responding in social media and networks, few do integrate social listening into actual, traditional reseach. Focus groups, call out — even informal user surveys. There’s no substitute for actual data. Rotation People often say they want “variety” online. It turns out what they really want is to read their favorites more than stuff they like less. It’s a balancing act introducing fresh ideas and replaying the ones that are still popular in social media. Content should be rotated in the same way. Based on the research, divide content into ranked topics: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary. Primary content should never be more than a click deep, and always in the view of someone visiting any site page. It should comprise about half what you publish, both in terms of volume and sequence. Secondary content comprises the next 30% or so of your research [...]
Content curation makes it sound like I’m the grammar doctor here to fix your ailing content. And while I’d love to offer you my content writing services to do just that, I’m really referring to two concepts: 1) Curating your existing content 2) Curating other people’s content What does it mean to curate? The curator of a museum is the one in charge of the collection. He or she catalogs the works, authenticates them, validates them, and assembles the best darn collection that the museum’s patrons will love. The official definition of curator is “one who manages or oversees.” Curation means the act of the curator; it is managing one’s content. So what does content curation do for your business? More importantly – ah, you knew what I was going to say, didn’t you? – what does it do for your customers, clients or readers? One of the first steps I take when embarking on large content marketing projects for client websites is content curation. I take a content inventory. When I worked for Macy’s, we conducted a physical inventory twice a year. It was quite the chore, but a necessary chore. Physically counting every blouse, skirt and t-shirt in the place ensured that any losses were accounted for and the book could be reconciled. More importantly – and this happened nearly every single time – we’d end up taking inventory say, in the stock room, and uncover a missing box of t-shirts or a rack of dresses we didn’t know we had. And that meant we could then offer them for sale. Once we took inventory, we knew what we had and could offer it to our customers. A content inventory is similar in nature to a store’s inventory. You look across all your content channels and log the content into a spreadsheet so you know what you have. Your content channels may include: Your website Other websites Blog Slideshare or another PowerPoint sharing site eBooks and other PDF-style content Podcasts Videos Images Infographics Other I usually record my content on an Excel spreadsheet and include: Title of the content Date first published Location with URL of where it appears Topic Summary Last time shared The content inventory provides me with a good overview of what I have to share, and where there are gaps. For instance, taking a content inventory of my Blog Talk Radio Show, Gentle [...]
You are here: Home / B2B copywriting / B2B Integrated Marcom: The Role of Content Curation B2B content curation involves placing context around content. In my opinion, curating content should be applied to a content marketing strategy with the goal of placing context around a piece of content created by a source other than yourself. So for example, let’s say you’re a B2B tech firm who develops service desk automation software and you’re curating content about IT service management. The goal is not simply to retweet or reference the content, but to place it within the context of your company’s product or service. Here’s how content curation works in a B2B application ( all company and product names are fictitious, of course! )… Awesome Engineering publishes a post on how their service desk improved service levels and decreased operating costs by automating their service desk. Your company, Super Duper Service Desk Software, is looking for source material to write post about ITIL certification (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), a related topic to the service desk. Awesome Engineering’s post provides a firsthand look at ITIL principles at work. Curating Awesome Engineering’s content not only gives you an opportunity to frame their article within the context of Super Duper Service Desk Software’s product, but also provides several content opportunities to insert the Super Duper name and product into the socialsphere. For example, you could write a blog post about how the Super Duper software automates workflows to follow ITIL best practices. Then write a tweet or two, covering an ITIL best practice, each of which links back to your blog post along with another tweet that puts your spin on Awesome Engineering’s post and links back to their post. Perhaps there’s also a SlideShare presentation or YouTube video that’s also relevant. They, too, are sources of curated content and represent additional opportunities to provide context around your products or services. I like +Jay Acunzo’s analogy that creation represents the bricks and curation, the mortar . He also explains, through an example, that when a curator maintains a “continual, genuine presence via curation, the original content registers more profoundly with followers.” If you plan to integrate curated content into your B2B marcom plan, it helps to have a content calendar . The content calendar (a.k.a. conversation calendar) locating content easier because you can base you search for content on a specific theme or [...]
Many social media pundits claim that content curation will prove to be the next biggest thing in the arena of online entrepreneurship and obviously, freelancers with specific skills to perform the job of content curation will gain a good fortune out of it. The biggest reason behind these predictions about the profitable expectations of content curation is the fact that the content on the Internet is increasing rapidly at every minute and according to some experts, within a few years, the content on the Internet will be doubled or more within every 72 hours or even less. Experts believe that this huge amount of content will offer a great opportunity for Internet marketers to gain online influence so that they may attain more customers for the products or services they are trying to market. However, it can prove to be a daunting task to refine the relevant and quality content available on the Internet and this difficulty can prove to be a great chance for the freelancers to gain an important place in the space of Internet marketing. This is the reason why it is important for freelancers to know everything about content curation as an especial skill and how to master that skill. What is Content Curation? Internet is a huge pool of a vast quantity of content that can be used for specific purposes. However, it is very important to recognize the quality of content and to arrange it in a meaningful manner so that anyone who is seeking for any information on Internet to share with others to achieve a definite goal may find it easy to attain the right content of appropriate quality. The process of rearranging the huge amount of content available on the web so that it can be presented in an organized and sense full manner is known as content curation. The traditional meaning of curator is a content specialist who organizes the content assets in a cohesive and coherent manner so that the information can be presented in an attractive and explanative manner to attain the interest of the viewers. Content curation involves the job of refining, cataloging, coordinating, and publishing the information around a specific subject. A content curator goes through all the possible available content and refines it to arrange the best possible content in a definite order of its importance and relevance so that it can be displayed [...]
